Show 2 Report From Washington By Rep Laurence J J. J Burton To paraphrase an old saw One of or the good things about being in Congress is the travel one does and one of or the bad things about being a Member of or Congress is the travel one does Much of our hearing travels are a complete routine bore and cost time away from the office and family Other trips are the thrill of lifetime One such was my recent venture venture venture ven ven- ture to the South Pole In An Antarctica Antarctica Antarctica An- An during the congressional congressional congressional recess What on onearth earth was wasl wasI I doing in Antarctica Well the the House Interior and Insular Affairs in addition to maintaining internal jurisdiction jurisdiction juris juris- jurisdiction diction over mines reclamation and irrigation Indian affairs national parks and recreation also oversees the administration tion and programs in Puerto Rico The Virgin Islands American Samoa the US U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific and Antarctica For twelve years our country has maintained maintained maintained main main- permanent year-round year bases in Antarctica a forbidding forbidding forbid forbid- ding continent at the bottom of the world about half again larger than continental United States The jumping off place for Antarctica for lor us is Christchurch Christchurch Christ- Christ Christchurch church New Zealand All the scientific work being done there thereby thereby thereby by people is under the direction direction direction tion of the National Science Foundation directed by Dr Tom Jones But his staff their operations and the bases themselves themselves themselves them them- selves are supplied and maintained maintained main main- by Navy Task Force 43 under the com command mand of or Rear Admiral Doc Abbott Hence our departure from Christchurch Christchurch Christchurch Christ- Christ church in a prop-driven prop Navy cargo Constellation Ten hours later after alter flying over several thousand miles of Antarctic Antarctic Antarctic An An- Ocean and ice shelf we landed on a frozen ice pack above the Ross Sea at McMurdo Sound The front wheel of our plane ran over a cub seal flopping along the ice pack which the pilot couldn't avoid without skidding his plane out of control It was a balmy 12 degrees below zero a warm summer day at McMurdo when we stepped from the plane The base at McMurdo in contrast to our other bases In the ice is in short supply With all the ice and snow around that seemed an anomaly to me until it was explained that the thereal thereal thereal real problem Is converting the solid ice and snow into a useable useable useable us- us liquid state It takes heat and heat takes fuel and fuel Is a most precious commodity commodity commodity com com- there Our sailors and scientists are limited to two gallons of water every seven to ten days for shower It was six days before be before before be- be fore we got back to Christchurch Christchurch Christchurch Christ- Christ church so so we didn't qualify for a shower on the ice and believe me did that hot water water feel leel good in the Christchurch Christchurch Christchurch Christ- Christ church motel The next morning at dawn we took off from McMurdo In Ina a Hercules prop-driven prop plane for the South Pole The plane had three huge aluminum skis mounted to it and carried fresh supplies for the twenty-some twenty Am Americans ricans who live Uve permanently permanently permanently perman perman- at Gods God's most remote outpost We landed there after a four hour flight in a ground blizzard bUzzard and the temperature was a cozy 27 degrees below The average temperature day in and day out Is minus 57 degrees In the winter June July August temperatures dip below minus degrees The Pole Station so-called so is all underground The rooms in inthe inthe inthe the station are connected by byice byice byice ice tunnels that are always 10 or 15 degrees below zero so the they melt They are stacked withe frozen cases of fruit soap meat vegetables and two huge tunnels hold the fuel containers I was surprised to find that the commander of the Pole Station Base was a fellow Utahn Navy Lt Jay Bowman whose father still resides in Salt Lake City Jay helped me fly from the South Pole itself an American American American Amer Amer- ican flag I had brou brought ht with me for my son Laurence Shupe and then asked me when I got back stateside if I would call his Dad and also send him hima a Utah State Flag that he could fly from the Pole Standing there in an the cold and andice andice andice ice I conjured up feelings of how Roald Amundsen the Norwegian explorer must have felt when he gained the pole poleto to become the first man there thereafter thereafter thereafter after losing three-fourths three of the sled dog he embarked with He had beaten by a matter of days the Englishman English English- man Captain James Jarnes Scott When Scott arrived a few days a later a er th the five men in In his party part were were hand drawing their sleds Their dog teams had turned back and the Siberian ponies they had hoped would pull the sleds had to be shot they were not up to the task Scott and his men found a small black tent over which fluttered the flag of Norway Norway Nor Nor- way and inside were some notes from Amundsen indeed a bitter pill for the exhausted and half frozen Scott and his four companions They started back on what was to become a race for sur sur- vival One man man fell off a glacier glacier glacier gla gla- cier suffered concussion and died within a few minutes Later another companion who had frozen feet and scurvy and could not pull his share of the sled walked from the tent into a blizzard never to return rather rath rath- er than handicap his further on their race with death A few days later a wild blizzard befell the remaining three They rhey were starving freezing to death and could not go go on They pitched their tent and awaited the inevitable They were only eleven miles from their next base camp which had plenty of fuel and food but their cause was hopeless They concluded entries In their diaries Scott wrote to his wife a companion wrote to his mother and one by one they perished Next spring a relief party found their tent and their frozen bodies They removed their diaries and papers and folded the tent over the three valiant e explorers and Ie left It them where they died Where is their pitiful camp today The scientist told me probably hundreds of feet deep In the ice The weight of their bodies would gradually cause the Ice to absorb them and that was more than five fifty-five years ago |